Zaila Avant-garde became the first-ever African-American contestant to win Spelling Bee
Fourteen-year-old Zaila Avant-garde became the first-ever African-American contestant to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a competition that Indian-Americans have dominated for years. The streak is over, yes, and it appears there's nobody more crestfallen than Hari Kondabolu, the Indian-American stand-up comic. On July 9, the host of Netflix Special Warn Your Relatives tweeted a video in which he looked "devastated", or so he claimed.
"We Lost The Spelling Bee. I am an Indian-American and I am devastated," read the caption to the 1-minute-59-second video. "I am trying not to get emotional," Hari Kondabolu said, adding, "The streak is over." He then congratulated Zaila Avant-garde, but added it was "tough" for him since "we only got one thing."
"You might think, what about the Geography bee, Hari? That's small potatoes, everybody," Hari Kondabolu said. The 38-year-old also told his fellow Americans that any of their Indian co-workers or friends who don't show up at work or school, you know why. "It's a national day of mourning. Tomorrow, the day after...What will go down as one of the hardest days in Indian-American history," he said.
"I am going to go and watch the ends of the last 12 spelling bees. I know it's a little sick but I need to feel it -- that adrenaline rush of victory I feel every year," he added. "Yeah, but it's over. Twelve years in a row son."
People on Twitter loved Hari Kondabolu's take. Some expressed "solidarity", others said that they "felt" him.
This Twitter user, however, said, "If we gotta lose, may as well lose to the coolest person on the planet."
American actress Suzy Nakamura, on the other hand, talked about giving some space to Hari Kondabolu.
"Was just going to check in on you. I'll give you some space while you watch “the tapes"," she said.
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Zaila Avant-garde, the 14-year-old who is a brilliant basketball player as well, won the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee after she correctly spelt "Murraya"- a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees having pinnate leaves and flowers. She was awarded USD 50,000 prize money on Thursday.
Chaitra Thummala, 12, from San Francisco and Bhavana Madini, 13, from New York came second and third at the keenly-fought competition, which the US First Lady Jill Biden also attended.